Hero's journey home is over

After 61 years, N. Korean POW back in U.S.

Photo courtesy of Theresa Shelstead
Army Master Sgt. Elwood Green died in a North Korean POW camp in February 1951. His remains recently were identified and will be returned to his native Arkansas.

Claire Kowalick/Times Record News
Mary Joyce Johnson smiles while sharing stories about her late brother, Master Sgt. Elwood Green. Green died while serving in the Korean War but his remains were not recovered. Finally identified by DNA, they will be returned to his native Arkansas for burial with full military honors May 12, the Saturday before Mother's Day.

Since the days of the struggle for Texas independence, someone in Mary Joyce Johnson's family has been waiting for a soldier to come home.

The longest and most painful wait, however, is almost over. On May 12 the remain's of Johnson's beloved brother Master Sgt. Elwood Green will be interred in his native Arkansas, 61 years after he died in a North Korean POW camp.

"It's a miracle. They recovered 69 bones, the remains of 32 individuals. Only two men were identified," said Theresa Shelstead, Johnson's daughter. The two, from Arkansas, were in Wichita Falls visiting Shelstead's daughter Joyce Dixon over the Easter holiday. "They were discovered in 2005 and were just identified in February."

Hope and faith kept a candle in the window for Green, one of Sol and Josie Green's 12 children, who was 19 in 1937 when he enlisted in the Army.

Choosing a military career, he was a member of Company E, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division when he was assigned to the Korean battlefield.

"He was still recovering from a wound, but insisted on getting back to his men on Sept. 22, 1950," said Johnson, 88, who remembers every date and detail of her brother's story. "He was captured Nov. 28. It was one of Korea's coldest winters ever."

Word of his capture came weeks later, in the wee hours of Christmas Day. Ultimately the family learned Elwood died Feb. 18, 1951, probably as a result of being tortured by the North Koreans.

"They only knew this because an American doctor in the POW camp kept a list of all the men who died, and the dates. He kept it rolled up in a pen they never confiscated," said Dixon, who was born after her uncle's death.

Johnson and the rest of the Green family grieved and remembered Elwood every day that followed. Pictures of him were prominently displayed with the American flag, and his story was part of the history passed on to generations that followed.

His name was added to the veterans memorial in Montgomery County, Ark., and listed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Mother Josie died in 1957, Johnson says, of a broken heart; their father died four years later. Elwood's wife, Gerda, died 20 years ago; two brothers and a sister are also deceased.

As decades passed — and depending on the whim of the North Korean government — boxes of remains of American soldiers have been returned to the U.S. Identification has taken time, science and, in most cases, donated funds.

An improvement in DNA testing and samples provided by the Green family finally confirmed a match in February.

"It's such a relief to finally know," said Johnson, holding back sobs still fresh after six decades. "I only wish my mother could have known. That she could have died at peace."

In May, on the Saturday before Mother's Day, more than 100 Green kin will gather to say a final farewell. Among them will be Elwood's daughter Josie Green Tibbets, who was 6 months old when he died, and his two grandchildren.

His remains will be escorted by the military and the Patriot Guard from touchdown at the Little Rock airfield to Mt. Gilead Cemetery near Black Springs, where he will be buried with full honors. Although it has not been confirmed, it is hoped former President Bill Clinton will attend.

And before Master Sgt. Green is laid to rest, Josie Tibbets will place her mother's cremains in her father's coffin.